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You see why I am relaxed about exposure! In my posts I often present ideas that maybe by some could be viewed as exposure (I don't think they are). The point is that just by adding a bit of initial smoke, no one - except the people who are genuinely interested - even notice the exposure.

themagicwand wrote:Have you ever seen the Sting? A 1970's movies about con-men and cardies. If you haven't I would really suggest that any aspiring cardie watch it. The card routine on board the train is wonderful and is something that I would base any card sharp routine on - apart from where he drops the cards. Well, perhaps there's even a place for that kind of showmanship in a good gambling/con routine.

I LOVE the sting. I watch it whenever I need to put together a short "straight up" gambling routine for use in my sixth from (I don't know why really!). With regard to this routine, I'm deliberately trying to veer away from the traditional gambling routine- (poker deals, stories of gambler vs magician etc), because I've done quite a few variations before, and I'm looking to test something new out. Before I started planning the routine, I gave myself a title to work on. I came up with "the magic of the card sharp". This gave me the scope to talk about basic gambling techniques by performing magic effects. As some laypeople view what cardsharps do as "magic" anyway, then I felt that it would be believable enough, whilst keeping enough of an air of mystery about it. After reading all the comments here, as well as considering my own ideas and filling nearly half of a notebook with variation upon variation of effects and presentational ideas, I've come up with one or two presentational styles that seem to fit the routine well. The first one was the one I outlined in my first post, with the second having each effect as visual aid for each skill ie. twisting the aces representing dexterity and "pazazz" as it were, my version of jazz aces representing misdirection and the troublesome ace production at the beginning representing the mind frame and how a gambler "sees hands" differently to the ordinary player. Of course this will represent a rather "tounge in cheek" style, but hopefully the audience will be able to take some aspects of it seriously- the only way I'll know is to try it when it's ready!

Hopefully, I'll be able to post a "live" video when I get to perform it (which could be quite some time yet!) for a critique of the presentation. Until then, I'd like to thank all of you for the insightful comments that have really helped to start to shape my presentation of this routine.

For the record, I've decided to dispense with the "borrowed deck" aspect. I'll probably just perform it with the same deck, or perhaps start out with a brand new sealed deck and take it from there. I'm still thinking along the lines of having them sign the aces, after all I could give them away at the end with a contact number on them (nice bit of marketing there). Of course the only problem is the amount of decks I'd get through... I might have to save the signing for special performances....

Thanks everyone for your help, and if you have any ideas or questions about this routine, then please feel free to pm me or post it in this thread